Word: nih
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...obscure corner of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), molecular biologist Norton Zinder strode to a 30-ft.-long oval conference table, sat down and rapped his gavel for order. A hush settled over the Human Genome Advisory Committee, an unlikely assemblage of computer experts, biologists, ethicists, industry scientists and engineers. "Today we begin," chairman Zinder declared. "We are initiating an unending study of human biology. Whatever it's going to be, it will be an adventure, a priceless endeavor. And when it's done, someone else will sit down and say, 'It's time to begin...
...achievement of that goal would launch a new era in medicine. James Wyngaarden, director of the NIH, which will oversee the project, predicts that it will make "major contributions to understanding growth, development and human health, and open new avenues for therapy." Full translation of the genetic message would enable medical researchers to identify the causes of thousands of still mysterious inherited disorders, both physical and behavioral...
...NIH and the Food and Drug Administration have already taken a dramatic step toward gene therapy. In January they gave approval to Dr. W. French Anderson and Dr. Steven Rosenberg, both at the NIH, to transplant a bacterial gene into cancer patients. While this gene is intended only to make it easier for doctors to monitor an experimental cancer treatment and will not benefit the patients, its successful implantation should help pave the way for actual gene therapy...
...kind of enthusiasm is infectious. In an era of budgetary restraint, Washington has been unblinkingly generous toward the genome project, especially since last April, when an array of scientists testified on the subject at a congressional committee hearing. There, Nobel laureate Watson of DNA fame, since picked by the NIH to head the effort, mesmerized listeners with his plea for support: "I see an extraordinary potential for human betterment ahead of us. We can have at our disposal the ultimate tool for understanding ourselves at the molecular level . . . The time...
Congress rose to the challenge. It promptly allocated more than $31 million for genome research to the NIH and to the Department of Energy and the National Library of Medicine, which are also involved in the quest. The combined appropriations rose to $53 million for fiscal...